Fourlis Group CEO Dimitris Valachis spoke to “N” about the group’s strategy and development plan, which aims to establish itself as the leading retail group in Southeast Europe through partnerships with human-centered brands that support innovation, sustainability, quality and affordability.
Focusing on the recent collaboration with Foot Locker, he emphasized that in the medium term, on the one hand, the size of the Group in the sporting goods industry will double, and on the other hand, the company will expand into new markets.
“The Fourlis Group has set as a strategic goal the strengthening of its presence in the NE region of Europe, always keeping an eye on new opportunities for growth and expansion. Our growth culture is based on human-centered decisions and the creation of added value for all our partners, as well as for the end consumer. Our desire is the continuous improvement of the Group’s network and its expansion in markets in which it operates, as well as in new ones. In this direction, we recently entered into a new licensing agreement with Foot Locker, which marks a strategic growth move. Foot Locker is added to the well-known brands IKEA, INTERSPORT and HOLLAND & BARRETT, which we operate through franchise and licensing agreements in Greece, Cyprus, Bulgaria and Romania,” Valachis underlined.
Enhanced business profile
Focusing on the recent collaboration of the Fourlis Group with the Foot Locker chain, he pointed out that this is an important step for the development and expansion of its activities. “Especially the collaboration with Foot Locker significantly differentiates the business profile of the Fourlis Group, strengthening its position in the market and expanding the range of its activities. Through this strategic partnership we will expand our activities in the sporting sector and at the same time enter new markets with a significant perspective. Foot Locker has a leading position in the sneaker market and comes to complement the leading position held by the Group in the sports performance sector through Intersport. Our goal is to double the size of the Group in the sporting goods industry,” Valachis noted.
He explained that “through the licensing agreement with Foot Locker, we intend to develop a wide network of stores in 8 countries of Southeast Europe, specifically in Greece, Romania, Bulgaria, Cyprus, Slovenia, Croatia, Bosnia & Herzegovina and Montenegro. Currently Foot Locker already has 3 physical stores and an online store in Greece and 3 physical stores in Romania, which we acquired as part of the deal. Our goal is to gradually open more than 120 stores in total in 8 countries, including physical and online stores, taking advantage of the dynamic growth of the sporting goods market in Southeast Europe. In fact, we are already launching our next moves for our immediate entry into the Bulgarian market, while we have also planned the development of stores in Greece, Romania and Cyprus where we already have a presence. We estimate that in the first year we will operate approximately 15-20 stores and each year we will open approximately 10-15 stores.”
